POPULATION MOVEMENT AND MIGRATION OF KHMER ETHNIC PEOPLE – A VIEW FROM NATIONAL CENSUSES 1979-2015

Abstract

Analyzing of changing proportions of population distribution by residential areas, comparing expected population growths versus observed population growths, and estimating inter-provincial migrants over national census surveys, this paper provides macro patterns of population movement and internal migration of the Khmer people from 1979 to 2015. Over 35 years, the Khmer population increased around 80% but population increase rates decreased and population redistributed almost within Nam Bo region, mainly from the Southwest to the Southeast. This trend of migration increased clearly in the 2000s, behind one decade compared to the Kinh people, which raises issues for doing research on the determinants at macro and micro levels of migration.